The Cereal Killer arrived today in perfect condition. It was packed with care and even had styrofoam protecting the dowels on the base. As promised I tore it all apart, because that's what I do. I intended to build my own mill but for $89, my time is worth more than that. I am not disappointed, rather I'm impressed at the value that this mill offers. Two things I'll point out, the ad says it's anodized and my ohmmeter says otherwise, it's raw aluminum. The ad also says the rollers are hardened, I see no evidence of heat treatment but I didn't want to drag a file across the roller to see.

The mill without the wood base weighs 5 pounds 3oz.

The hopper is made from .0325" aluminum sheet, it is professionally sheared and brake formed. It is assembled with aluminum pop rivets. More than adequate for the job. Two screws secure it to the roller assembly. They thoughtfully slotted the hopper so if you need to remove it, you simply have to loosen the screws and lift it off.

The mill is secured to a wood base with two metric cap screws, the base is 5/8" cabinet plywood. I would have expected MDF on a value mill. There are three locator dowels on the bottom to keep it centered on a 5 gallon bucket.

The mill can be reversed on the base which would allow you to mount a small motor directly to the base, you could squeak an 1.5" drive pulley on the shaft. Perhaps a cog belt style to make the best use of the clearance.

With the base & the hopper removed we are down to the mill itself. The front & rear plates are .0625" aluminum each held in place by four screws. The aluminum was cosmetic grade in that it had a blue protective covering to prevent it from getting scratched up during machining, typically this cost more.

The mill is advertised as being ball bearing and indeed it is. The side plates each have a 6800Z bearing for the drive roller.

The idler roller has 698Z bearings pressed into each end of the roller.

The eccentrics engage the bearings and rotate in the side plate to adjust the roller gap. The thumb screws tighten against the slot in the eccentrics.

The rollers are 5 inches long and measure 1.281 inches in diameter and the diameter is consistent the length of each roller. The rollers are fully knurled to depth as evident by the sharp points on the diamonds.

All the fastener holes were chamfered & de-burred. Disassembly and assembly was easy, everything was slip fit. The .053" gap mark indicated is pretty close as verified with a feeler gage. Max gap is .106" and the minimum gap indicated is 0. It's easy to set the gap and lock it in place with the thumb screws which also have a jam nut to keep them from backing off.

About the only improvement that I can think of at this time would be the addition of some thin plastic shim stock on each roller end to prevent roller contact with the aluminum side plates. something .010" would be good. A metal shim could be used as well.

There are a few other views of it posted in my gallery.

In summary, for $89 delivered to the door, it's a heck of a value.

ETA, I ran across some photos of a Barley Crusher that was taken apart, the Cereal Killer is pretty much a dead ringer clone of a Barley Crusher except the Barley crusher has bushings.

ETA

I did some digging and came across the pics of the Barley Crusher disassembled. Wanted to make sure the pics were credited to their rightful owners. I prefer the Cereal Killer construction.

WOW... Fantastic post, pictures and descriptions CS223!!! Thanks for taking the time to put this together for the membership, it really helps and I think will result in a sales bump for AIH. Just a few thoughts:

Maybe now that you have er apart, you should give it an Alodine coating -- Something tells me (based on your above report) that you might have a bottle lying around

Your picture of the rollers in full view here seem to show some slight discoloration (bottom roller, left edge) which look like burn marks, no?:

I worry about the thumb screws slipping against a rounded piece, even with a jam nut.

This might be a good idea to also lessen the risk of dissimilar metal corrosion. Speaking of which... Any thoughts on rust prevention and roller-bearing care?

Thanks again and Prost!
H.O./Jeff

Jeff,
If I did anything I'd anodize and color the side plates and engrave some additional gap settings but I don't think it's worth the trouble of removing the bearings. I don't see any issue with dissimilar metal corrosion, it won't be in a wet environment.

The discoloration in the rollers is rust preventative oil or machine coolant. I cleaned the rollers and other parts after photographing and applied a light coat of mineral oil. If the bearings were easy to remove from the roller, I'd Parkerize both of them for rust protection. I did take a file to the side of the roller, it didn't appear hard.

The thumb screws shouldn't slip. If they do, it would be easy to replace them with some cup point set screws. I will add that the roller moves some when you tighten them so you've got to set the gap lightly on the feelers gauge to get it spot on or go up a couple thou in gauges to get your desired final gap.

I thought about cutting a groove in the side plates and dropping in an o-ring that would ride on the ends of the rollers to act as dust shields for the bearings but I really don't see any long term issues, you've got to get flour to pack in there and get forced past the bearing shields.

It will be a few weekends before I can brew again and test it out but I'm confident that it will perform well. I'm wondering if if it will work equally as well for milling flour for bread.

I am interested in purchasing the Cereal Killer (good reviews/build quality/price), but I heard bad things about the handle. I know it's small, but is it really so small that it is completely useless? I only brew 2 gallon batches, and my electric drill is heavy and unwieldy. What can you say about the handle? Is it really $5 down the drain, or is it efficient enough for small batches?

I am interested in purchasing the Cereal Killer (good reviews/build quality/price), but I heard bad things about the handle. I know it's small, but is it really so small that it is completely useless? I only brew 2 gallon batches, and my electric drill is heavy and unwieldy. What can you say about the handle? Is it really $5 down the drain, or is it efficient enough for small batches?

Thanks!

I didn't buy the handle. It looked way too short to me. It would be easy to make one that had a longer throw.

I got one of these. Showed up early this week....Got the $89 deal with free shipping. Was a little worried because I saw a thread about some previous models that had problems....Ran across it just after I placed my order. Glad to see this thread though. I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet, but I'll try to remember to come back here after I do.